Colors, art and emotions

Color of the mind

Hues, tints, tones and shades in visual art.

THE PAINTING

Most people are perplexed when they view this painting and question, "What is this?"

However, after a few seconds of observation, "Maybe it's water... a lake.... Aha! Now I see a cloudy sky with sun —- possibly a lake shore with a boat ramp."..
This frequently occurs with my paintings. Viewers begin to map out familiar patterns on the artwork in a matter of seconds. One can see the joy of solving a riddle in their eyes!

Because the majority of the area is drab gray, the emerald patch attracts attention and is mapped as a lake. The horizontal edge lends credence to the water concept. Above the lake is the sky, which frequently contains clouds and the sun. Soon, faraway structures on the right horizon may be seen. The close shoreline is now seen —- makes perfect sense! 

 

THE EYE/ RETINA

• RODS capable of sensing the entire light spectrum (white).

• CONE cells detect distinct portions of the spectrum (wavelengths) that humans refer to as "colors."

BLUE ...... RED.....GREEN

If this is the case, can the colors be used to influence human decisions or for therapeutic purposes by triggering specific zones of the brain and associated emotions??

 

I was curious if other animals had similar experiences. Do animals perceive and react to colors in the same way? 

In this article, I will discuss my understanding. In the first part it covers technical and physiological aspects and later it will be about color and emotions.

VISION and COLORS

In actuality, there is neither color nor light. It is only electromagnetic radiation that activates proteins that have a frequency sensitivity! The range of waves that are visible to human vision is known as the visible spectrum. 

Animals can not make food like plants. They need to move to find food. The evolution of animal vision allowed them to find food and avoid predators. Vision also provide sense of size and distance. Colors are sub groups of the visible spectrum that help distinguish objects better. Average humans can see three basic colors and brain can interpolate many thousands of distinct colors.

IN THE BEGINNING

Consider the first day of a newborn's life. Gravity, sounds, and bright lights, as well as the first breath and odors. The first day is fairly nerve-racking, but the newborn has a purpose - to live, to survive in the given environment!

 

Colors and shapes

Fig 2 Flower vase (copyright Vinayak Godbole)

It is unclear if babies can 'see' colors at birth, although the baby brain distinguishes colors and patterns at about 3 months. Given the amount of processing required for vision, the brain begins to turn colors into shapes by putting artificial outlines on them.

What we 'see' is the result of eye-brain synchronization and some deep learning during our first few months of life. We see light, colors, and learn to perceive 'near and far' objects, which all contribute to the formation of our eyesight. Converting color patches into 3D shapes and patterns requires significant processing in the brain. The brain also learns to categorize what it sees into knowledge clusters.

Figure 2 shows how we can convert color patches into recognized items by filling in the empty outlines and creating an impression of a flower vase.

 

Painting or drawing on a flat surface is an abstraction of three-dimensional reality. Our brain needs some practice to imagine the third depth dimension.

But, for now, let's focus on the science of vision and its components.

The eye is an animal-specific organ that can detect a certain range of electromagnetic waves. The function of the eyes is to locate objects such as food and motion that might be either prey or predator.

The retina is a concave area behind the lens of the eye. The retina is lined with photo-receptor cells and proteins that respond to electromagnetic radiation. These cells are split into two groups.

The mechanism in our brain that processes color (hues) and brightness in gray scale (value) is quite independent.

Individual nerve pathways to the brain connect these cones to the brain. Thus, the brain is aware of the existence of a specific color and its location on the retina or in the field of vision. The cones thus provide detail sharp image to the brain.

Rods, on the other hand, cannot perceive distinct hues but can detect aggregate light waves. Small groupings of rods are frequently bundled and connected to the brain by a single nerve. Rods see the world in B&W. They can see in dim light as several rods are grouped and hence easy to process. Brain predominantly uses them for detecting motion.

So we now know that certain frequencies of light waves activate the cones in the retina, causing us to see color in the vision field.

Unfortunately, the human eye only possesses three sorts of cones: RED, BLUE, and GREEN. All other colors we see are a combination of these three and are created in the brain.

As a science student, I believed that every consequence had to be traced back to a source. Atoms, waves, forces, and energy can explain practically anything. But as I began talking to artists and curators and spending hours in galleries, I realized there is a deeper relationship between colors and our emotions. Colors can elicit emotions such as fear, anger, satiety, and enjoyment.

The science of colors, as electromagnetic waves and the ability of our eyes to sense three specific wavelengths, is generally well documented. 

 The Brain and vision

The new brain becomes very busy interpreting everything that happens. In the ensuing weeks and months, learns to filter and categorize these sensory inputs. Over time, it begins to respond (usually weep) on the inputs and identify emotions with them. Associate these inputs with activities and emotions such as fear or delight.

Most of us have no recollection of the first three years of our lives. Childhood amnesia is a loss of specific memories, but it is not memory erasure. The brain has created algorithms based on sensory inputs. These are survival reactions to the environment.

Human babies are born prematurely (mobility) in comparison to other mammals, but their brains are fully matured. Because they have been cared for by people for months, their brains have had plenty of time to process the sounds, scents, and images. In humans, images take precedence over smell. It's all part of the process of evolution.

Because they are immobile, they must learn to 'manage' the assistance they require to survive.

Visuals are the most difficult to process and take a lot of brain and memory to establish pattern recognition... in this phase, faces and objects are encoded along with their colors, precisely as AI face recognition systems.

In the following section, let's see how colors touch our emotions: